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Service Before Self (But Breakfast Before Service) | A Laugh-Out-Loud Insider Account of Life at the NDA by Mayank Kanungo

Service Before Self (But Breakfast Before Service) | A Laugh-Out-Loud Insider Account of Life at the NDA by Mayank Kanungo

Mayank Kanungo
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The National Defence Academy (NDA) is where sleep is optional, pain is compulsory, and the shortest distance between two points is usually a punishment run.

Meet the boys who arrive dreaming of uniforms, glory, and adventure. The Academy, however, has other plans. After three years of ragda, impossible instructors, spectacular blunders, questionable decisions, unforgettable friendships and stories that will be retold for decades, they discover why every ex-cadet swears he’ll never go back. And spends the rest of his life wishing he could.

Welcome to the Academy.

#MilitaryHumor #CadetLife #NDAStories

Imprint: India Penguin Enterprise

Published: Sep/2026

ISBN: 9789377303518 (Paperback)

Length : 384 Pages

MRP : ₹399.00

Service Before Self (But Breakfast Before Service) | A Laugh-Out-Loud Insider Account of Life at the NDA by Mayank Kanungo

Mayank Kanungo

The National Defence Academy (NDA) is where sleep is optional, pain is compulsory, and the shortest distance between two points is usually a punishment run.

Meet the boys who arrive dreaming of uniforms, glory, and adventure. The Academy, however, has other plans. After three years of ragda, impossible instructors, spectacular blunders, questionable decisions, unforgettable friendships and stories that will be retold for decades, they discover why every ex-cadet swears he’ll never go back. And spends the rest of his life wishing he could.

Welcome to the Academy.

#MilitaryHumor #CadetLife #NDAStories

Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback

Mayank Kanungo

Mayank Kanungo is an Indian Air Force veteran and an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Pune, and the Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun. A self-styled philosopher, overthinker and confirmed narcissist (his words, not ours), he describes himself as a passionate writer. Some of his earlier short stories appeared in the Camphor anthology at RIMC, along with a handful of opinion pieces in The Millennium Post.

A lifetime spent reading other people’s books eventually convinced him that he could probably write one himself. Service Before Self (But Breakfast Before Service) is the outcome of that optimism, or delusion, depending on whom you ask.

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